Dutch Dive Team Identifies Dutch Wreck

“Yellow Metal” Hull Sheeting

Patented in 1832, the original application of Muntz’s patented “Yellow Metal” was as a replacement for copper sheathing on the bottom of ships. It was popular because it maintained the anti-fouling abilities of the pure copper at around two thirds of the price.

Researching Civil War Shipwrecks

Perhaps the best single source for researching Civil War shipwrecks is a set of books titled TheOfficial Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion. These records include official correspondence, dispatches, excerpts from vessel logs, etc. and are an excellent source of contemporary records relating to shipwrecks. These wrecks range from powerful ironclad warships to flimsy merchant steamers. It was by using these records that Dr. E. Lee Spence located numerous blockade runners, including the Norseman and Stonewall Jackson.

Salvage of Shipwreck Gold to Resume

Interested in Shipwrecks and sunken treasure? The salvage of the remaining gold on the side-wheel steamer Central America may finally resume in 2014 after a lapse of over 20 years that was caused largely by legal problems. Her loss with tons of gold and hundreds of people in 1857 was one of the worst maritime disasters of the Gold Rush era.

DEMA Show 2013

The Diving Equipment and Marketing Association Expo is an annual, trade-only event for the Diving Industry. The 2013 DEMA Show is being held in Orlando, November 6-9. If you are a dive shop owner, dive tour operator, manufacturer, dive service provider, or virtually anyone else in the diving industry, you really need to attend.

Shipwrecks.com Website

Shipwrecks.com is the world’s longest running website devoted primarily to shipwrecks past and present. We have been posting about shipwreck research, expeditions, diving, underwater archaeology and treasure salvage since the internet first went public, which is exactly how we were able to get the domain name shipwrecks.com, before it was grabbed by anyone else.

Be sure to subscribe to our shipwrecks blog, so you will be alerted each time something new is posted.

Sea Research Society

Sea Research Society has been doing shipwreck expeditions every year for over 40 years. Projects have included wrecks such as the Confederate submarineH.L. Hunley, the Confederate blockade runnersGeorgiana, Mary Bowers and Constance, the Great Lakes freighterRegina, and steamerCity of Vera Cruz, as well as many others.

Hundreds Drown in Wreck off Italy

A boat with around 500 illegal migrants burned and sank between Tunisia and Sicily on October 3, 2013. Hundreds of men, women and children drowned. Most of them were illegal migrants fleeing religious and political persecution in Eritrea and Somalia.

Typhoon Sinks 3 Ships in Paracel Islands

Submersibles Showcased at Monaco Yacht Show

U-Boat Worx, Hawkes Ocean Technologies, Triton Submarines, and Seamagine Hydrospace are each displaying one or more of their submersibles at this year’s Monaco Yacht Show. Imagine exploring the seafloor and finding shipwrecks with them.

International Diving Institute

The International Diving Institute in Charleston, South Carolina has one of the finest commercial diver training facilities in the entire Western Hemisphere. One of IDI’s founders is a world recognized expert on the salvage of historic shipwrecks and some of its graduates have gone on to work with him on such famous wrecks as the SS Ozama(a gun-runner sunk in 1894) and theSS United States(wrecked in 1881)

1913 Wreck of the SS Regina

Learn about the history, discovery and salvage of the 1913 Lake Huron shipwreck SS Regina. 1987 expedition by underwater archaeologist Dr. E. Lee Spence and discoverer Wayne Brusate. No gold was found but lots of bottles of G.H. Mumm; Veuve Clicquot Champagne; Dewar’s; and Whyte & McKay Scotch as well as thousands of other artifacts were recovered.

Wreck of the Spanish schooner Diamante or Diamond

The Spanish schooner Diamante (or Diamond) was a slave ship bound from Cuba to Africa with a valuable cargo and a considerable sum of money when she was lost on Cape Romain, South Carolina in 1816. Could this be one of the shipwrecks discovered by Dr. E. Lee Spence?

Wreck of the SS City of Vera Cruz

How Long is too Long?

It took approximately 45 years from when I first discovered (and reported) the wrecks of the Georgiana and Mary Bowers for any official from the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology & Anthropology (SCIAA) to visit the wrecks. They are the State agency in charge of the shipwrecks. This site is important archaeologically and historically. I say their decades of delay was way too long to and smacks of chronic, serial incompetency.

SS United States wrecked in 1881

The steamer United States was shipwrecked in the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Romain, South Carolina in 1881. Built in Connecticut in 1864, she was the finest ship constructed by one of America’s foremost shipyards. The shipwreck was discovered and identified by underwater archaeologist Dr. E. Lee Spence. In 2012, the Federal District Court ruled that Spence was the “true and exclusive owner of the abandoned wreckage.”

SS Ozama sunk in 1894

The steamer SS Ozama was built in Scotland in 1881 and was shipwrecked on Cape Romain, South Carolina in 1894. The shipwreck was discovered by Dr. E. Lee Spence, who now owns the wreck under an order of the United States Federal District Court.

Wreck of the blockade runner Georgiana

The Civil War steamer Georgiana was described in contemporary documents as the most powerful Confederate cruiser. The wreck was discovered in 1965 by Dr. E. Lee Spence, who salvaged over 1,000,000 individual artifacts from the wreck. The blockade runners Mary Bowers, Norseman, and Constance Decimer were all lost by running onto this wreck.

Dr. E. Lee Spence, Underwater Archaeologist

Internationally known shipwreck expert, Lee Spence, found his first shipwrecks at age twelve. He has since found hundreds of wrecks and worked on everything from Spanish galleons & pirate ships to blockade runners & Great Lakes freighters. He has been buried in cave-ins, tangled in fishing nets, pinned under wreckage, run out of air, lost inside a wreck and bitten by fish while pursuing his quests.

Network with Dr. E. Lee Spence

Network and/or read about underwater archaeologist Dr. E. Lee Spence. He has been researching, discovering and writing about shipwrecks and sunken treasure for over fifty years. His shipwreck discoveries range from the H.L. Hunley (first submarine in history to sink an enemy ship) to Spanish galleons.

Hi,M.Dr.E .Lee I need to do a project for my career choice class and I chose underwater researcher,for one of my questions for the project I must find a salary for this jobs now unfortunetly I cannot find it anywhere.

Of course I understand this is private information.So i was wondering if there could be any way you could privatly message me just an estimate of what the salary would be.

Thank you and I completly understand if you do not want to answer this,it is quite personnal and I honestly feel ashamed to ask you such question.

I do hope you have a great day and I love your website you are doing a great job,it’s amazing everything you have done.

If you Google the word shipwrecks, you get almost three million results, but my website Shipwrecks.com still comes up on the first page of results. Please add a link to it on your website so we can keep it there. Let us know and we will do the same for you. We are at http://www.shipwrecks.com Email me at [email protected].

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